Narvik Travel Forum

hey all,

I've got a couple of questions. As I sit at my desk and look at the map of Europe next to me, I'm so excited to get to a place like Narvik, Norway. So much so that I scheduled 4 days of my 15 day Norwegian holiday in the area, including my 31st birthday! I'll be alone but staying with someone in Narvik from hospitalityclub website. I'm trying to figure out the best way to spend my time there so it's a mixture of relaxing, interesting, awe-inspiring and with a righteous beer or two thrown in. Thinking something like this:

May 23 arrival - hang out in Narvike
May 24 birthday! take the Oftobanen to Riksgrensen for the afternoon; where would be a good place to celebrate my birthday with one or two people or possibly even alone. Is there a bar or cafe in Narvik that would think, hey cool, a guy from California having his birthday in our small neck of the woods, let's invite him to a beer!
May 25 thought of hitchhiking down E6 to Bognes and Tranoey, and then taking the ferry across to Loedingen and hitching back to Narvik
May 26 hang in Narvik

Please, any ideas or suggestions sound great. It's 9:49am on a Monday morning, I have to teach 3 English classes in the afternoon and I'm so excited about this trip just 2.5 months away, not to mention the fact that:

I can speak some Norwegian, been learning for 5 months, first time I've ever learned a language before going to somewhere, and I'm writing a short book in Norwegian (50 pages) that I hope to trade for beers/food and even sell to some people who are interested. I'm sure I'll end up giving half of them away (I'm making 100 copies of the book, costing me about 3200kr!) but give me some advice, vaer saa snil!

Jason
jasonconga@yahoo.com

I may not be the right season for it (I did it in July), but if so, don't miss going to Andenes for a whale safari!
Otherwise, a boat trip along Lofoten, e.g., to Svolvaer is never wrong.

Happy almost birthday! Tell all Norwegians you see in a pub that it's your birthday and that you couldn't wait to celebrate it in their beautiful land. I guarantee you the free beers will be endless! these are the most lovely and generous people around and will appreciate you taking the time to learn their language. Even if they want to practice their English, be sure to practice your Norwegian in return -they'll love it! I'm not sure what the topic of your book is, but I'm sure you can use it as leverage for free stuff and to make new friends. They are likely to invite you to stay on their couch or enjoy dinner with their family when you make friends. Maybe you don't need 100 copies - seems like alot to carry around with you! Maybe bring 50 and some small California trinkets of some kind to barter around or offer as thank you gifts for couch space. At least make cards to give out with your name and email address to offer to those who are kind to you so that you can offer to reciprocate if they visit. I do this every time I travel and the offer is always appreciated.

Also, you can hitch, as you mentioned, to many places. But do check out the train schedules also. If you are lucky, there are often "minipris" fares that are available on some routes making them very, very cheap. There is an english translation on the website, making it easier for us to understand. (I speak fluent Norwegian but even I get lazy translating in my head!) On some routes it may make more sense due to temperature or weather conditions or if you get stuck somewhere. At least know your options!

Ha en fin tur og lykke til! Lorine